Sand Trafficking: Elaborate Schemes, Worlwide
A Battle as the Tide Takes Away Cancún Sand
By Marc Lacey, The New York Times.
Police tape goes up every day in trouble spots all across Mexico but is rarely unfurled on the beach. One oceanfront stretch in Cancún, however, was closed off to the public recently after the federal government deemed it a crime scene , the target of what prosecutors consider an elaborate scheme to steal sand.
Federal police officers stormed the beach outside the Gran Caribe Real Cancún in late July and detained five hotel employees in the theft plot. Standing guard were heavily armed marines. After the arrests, the authorities closed off the beach with police tape as well as “Closed” signs.
Although Cancún has crystal-clear waters, plenty of sun and night life galore, its supply of sand has been dwindling for years, especially since Hurricane Wilma struck the Yucatán Peninsula hard and washed away much of the white granules four years ago. Now narrow slivers of sand lie between Cancún’s towering hotels and the waves.
The government has spent tens of millions of dollars to replenish the beaches, but because those efforts have not kept up with Mother Nature, some hotel owners have taken measures into their own hands. At the Gran Caribe Real Cancún, workers built a breakwater into the ocean last year to reduce erosion and began pumping sand from the ocean floor to the shore.
“This was a protective measure to save the beach,” said Fernando García Zalvidea, owner of the hotel, who was in Mexico City last week to meet with prosecutors. “These tourists want sun and beach, and if they don’t have it they get angry.”
But the owners of some neighboring hotels got angry that Mr. García’s unauthorized public works projects were reducing the sand on their beaches. They complained to Mexico’s attorney general for environmental protection, known as Profepa, which carried out the arrests and beach closing. Mr. García suffered another blow on Monday when a Cancún court ruled against his challenge of the government’s repeated orders to stop work.
The dispute had been brewing for more than a year, with the hotel going to court while continuing its beach work. Mr. García contended that his efforts were emergency projects that did not require government permission. In May 2008, seven other workers were arrested for carrying out the ocean construction at night.
“They were robbing sand, which is a property of the nation,” fumed Raziel Villegas Nuñez, Profepa’s director of oceanfront enforcement. As for the use of police tape, he said the unauthorized work, which included the introduction of a sand substitute known as sascab, was against the law and thus created a crime scene. “We wanted to make it very clear it was closed,” he said.
Some critics in Cancún have condemned the raid, saying the government had scared tourists at a time when visitors were already rattled by Mexico’s drug violence and influenza outbreak.
“We’re accused of being enemies of tourists,” responded Mr. Villegas. “On the contrary. We’re trying to take care of our natural resources, which is what the tourists come for.”
Photographs from the scene showed troops standing by empty lounge chairs as well as bikini-clad hotel guests sneaking under the tape to get to the beach. As for any terror that the raid produced, Mr. Villegas produced a photograph of tourists posing with a camouflage-clad marine, his automatic weapon carefully pointed toward the sand.
Le sable marin devient un objet de trafic
By Bertrand d’Armagnac, Le Monde – 29/03/2010
Les touristes ne sont pas les seuls à s’intéresser aux plages et aux fonds marins qui font rêver. Les fournisseurs en matériaux de construction sont aussi de plus en plus tentés d’aller faire un tour le long des côtes. Tous sont aujourd’hui à la recherche de sable et de graviers afin d’étancher la soif de béton des promoteurs immobiliers. Si certains de ces marchands de sable ont pignon sur rue, d’autres opèrent en contrebande. Pour le plus grand dommage des sites qui sont devenus leurs proies et sur lesquels ils interviennent en bandes très bien organisées.
Le sable, dont les réserves accessibles sont limitées, est ainsi convoité partout dans le monde : en Asie, en Afrique et en Amérique. Récemment, des cas de vol ont été rapportés sur des plages au Mexique, à la Jamaïque ou dans le Pacifique. Au Maroc, les camions de pilleurs de sable sont poursuivis par la police sur les plages proches de Tanger ou de Casablanca.
Même l’Europe n’est pas épargnée. L’un des derniers cas signalés par des habitants a touché l’Ecosse. Courant février, les plages de Tiree, une île baignée par le Gulf Stream, ont été délestées de leur sable à plusieurs reprises. Paradis des surfeurs et des amateurs de nature, Tiree est l’objet d’un boom de la construction. Si elle n’est pas arrêtée, cette exploitation débridée va faire courir à l’île de graves dangers : l’érosion de sa côte la fragilise face aux fréquentes tempêtes qui frappent la région, mais aussi, à plus long terme, face à l’élévation du niveau de la mer. D’autant que l’île a peu de relief, la plupart de ses terres étant à moins de 15 mètres au-dessus du niveau de l’eau.
L’attrait pour le sable marin provient de ses qualités physiques particulières. « Avec son grain « roulé » par les vagues et sa forte densité, il apporte une très bonne résistance au béton », explique Patrick Kerverdo, directeur de DTM, une entreprise d’extraction basée sur le littoral atlantique.
L’affaiblissement de la résistance de la côte est la crainte principale des populations touchées par le vol ou l’extraction légale, mais intensive, de sable. De plus, le sable et les graviers marins obéissent à des mouvements de courant cycliques qu’un prélèvement brutal vient troubler. Et un pompage puissant peut avoir un effet perturbateur sur les organismes qui vivent au fond des mers, ainsi que sur la structure de la houle.
Le souci d’érosion mal contrôlée pèse aussi sur les populations qui vivent le long des estuaires. Au Vietnam, par exemple, des habitations s’écroulent dans le delta du Mékong ou le long des rivières près d’Hanoï, dont les rivages ont été dépouillés de leur sable.
Le phénomène est particulièrement aigu autour de Singapour, qui cherche constamment à gagner sur la mer. D’une surface de 580 km2 en 1960, la cité-Etat s’étend aujourd’hui sur près de 700 km2. Elle a donc des besoins immenses en sable, qu’elle va chercher chez ses voisins, par l’intermédiaire de fournisseurs privés. Mais ces derniers ne sont pas toujours très scrupuleux.
L’ONG Global Witness rapporte, par exemple, qu’au Cambodge, certains d’entre eux, organisés très « professionnellement », avec des systèmes de pompes installés sur des barges, peuvent remplir illégalement un bateau d’une capacité de 15 000 tonnes en aspirant pendant trois jours et trois nuits le sable d’un estuaire ou du rivage d’une île.
A environ 11 dollars (8,2 euros) la tonne au départ du lieu d’extraction et 45 dollars pour le sable livré à Singapour près à être utilisé, selon Global Witness, ce trafic représente une affaire clairement rentable.
Cet appétit pour la ressource, qui se retrouve aussi à Hongkong ou sur la côte chinoise, provoque la colère de l’Indonésie, du Cambodge et de la Malaisie, dont les très nombreuses îles sont pillées. Au souci d’éviter un désastre écologique, qui conduit parfois à la disparition de petites îles, s’ajoute, pour ces pays, la crainte de voir leurs frontières maritimes rognées avec le recul des traits de côte.
En France, où l’extraction de sable et de graviers marins est strictement encadrée par le code minier, ou dans les autres pays européens, la contrebande n’est pas aussi développée. Mais l’épuisement à terme des ressources accessibles et autorisées, les résistances des riverains et le durcissement des réglementations, amènent les industriels et les fournisseurs de matériaux à réfléchir à d’autres sources d’approvisionnement, notamment par le recyclage des matériaux issus de la démolition, explique Nicolas Vuillier, président de l’Union nationale des producteurs de granulats.
En 2008, environ 7 millions de tonnes de granulats marins ont été extraits sur le littoral français, sur une production totale de plus de 400 millions de tonnes, dont 170 millions de matériaux alluvionnaires. Mais la demande pourrait être multipliée par trois dans les dix années à venir.
ASP Martin: Sand Mining is Rivalling the Drug Trade
Grenada Island News.
The Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) has found itself being challenged to deal with another illegal business on the island, which is said to be fast “rivaling the already growing illegal drug trade”. The issue of sand mining was brought to the fore by Superintendent of Police, Edvin Martin during a news briefing with local reporters at the Grenada Red Cross building last week Thursday.
Noting the seriousness of the illegal act being committed around the island, Supt. Martin outlined some of the strict measures being implemented by RGPF to combat this emerging trade. He said that the act of sand mining is putting a major strain on the resources of the police force in effectively policing this particular matter. He charged that the perpetrators involved in sand mining are operating like “nocturnal animals” sleeping throughout the entire day and working at night to steal beach sand.
According to Supt. Martin, the sand miners have become more organised in terms of their strategies and in some cases move into locations with dogs and people to scout out the area to ensure that the beach is clear before carrying out their illegal trade. Sand mining is occurring throughout the island but the police have indicated that the Eastern corridor on the island has seen the greatest amount of arrests for the offence.
To date more than 20 persons have been arrested and charged for illegal sand mining. Supt. Martin disclosed that as a result of this developing trend, the police force has started nightly operations and those carrying out the patrols have been notified to make spot checks on trucks and other vehicles suspected of carrying sand across the country. RGPF has appealed to the public to be vigilant and report any such activities to the police.
The senior police officer described the illegal sand mining activities as a national challenge, stating that the police by themselves cannot competently deal with this issue and that the regularity with which it is taking place is a matter of concern and that the public need to come to their assistance. Banning sand mining on local beaches was one of the first actions taken by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of Prime Minister, Tillman Thomas shortly after winning the July 08, 2008 general election.
The issue was raised by Minister of Carriacou and Petite Martinique affairs, Senator George Prime who explained the serious negative impact the act is having on the environment particularly on the sister isle where already many graves are now into the sea. The decision to stop beach sand mining on the island has outraged a number of people including building contractors and truck drivers who have said the cost of imported sand is far too high.
However in November 2008, government passed the Beach Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2008 which provides for the forfeiture of any vehicle or conveyance used in removing any sand, stones, shingles or gravel from the beach, sea or foreshore. A person who contravenes the provisions of subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $15,000.00 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three years.
The amended law also stipulates that anyone who has in his or her possession these aggregates, commits an offence and is liable on a summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $15,000.00 and a further fine of $550.00 for each day during which the contravention continues. Grenada is currently importing sand from the South American country of Guyana.
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